Difficult to fill in the talent void created post maternity leave: Survey

Internship programmes, for the last several decades, has been a viable bridge between the industry and its talent-pool.

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Opinion | Make that career break your friend and move ahead

This training programme for school boys in India is ensuring that misogyny is nipped in the bud

It is quite common these days for corporate companies to have workshops and seminars to train employees on gender equality. But it isn’t often that we see a see a complete change in one’s attitude towards women. There are deep-rooted biases that always remain. Dr Saundarya Rajesh’s initiative MITR — Men Impacting Trust and Respect hopes to address this very problem by changing attitudes at a very young age. Excerpts...

How important is it for men to be gender champions? The Indian workplace has a stark minority of women. You have about 16 per cent women. The reasons are many — women are late entrants into the workforce, not all workplaces are safe for women, they take more breaks than any of her counterparts in the world. Change can only happen when men become champions for women. It’s almost entirely in the hands of men to make a difference.

How does MITR help? We wondered what it would be like if a young boy could look at his female classmate and see what Indian women have gone through several centuries and what brought them here and what it means to let go of the small biases. That was the seed for MITR. We hope that through our programmes, these boys become aware of the problems that women face and that they grow up to become greater champions of women.

What does the programme include?MITR is a three-day training programme for boys of class VIII to XII. They get to learn about gender intelligence, unconscious biases, history of Indian women professionals and how they can become gender champions. It is extremely experiential. We don't want to bore them with PPTs. The entire module is built focusing on games, roleplays, self-assessment activities, theatre and lots of stories. We have finished the programme in three schools and about 25 schools that have expressed their interest for the upcoming academic year.

What sort of training do the trainers undergo?We have very interesting male models who share their experiences. We also have women trainers who share their perspectives. Both male and female trainers undergo training and are familiarised with all the questions that boys of that age might have. This is the age when boys develop the wrong impression about the opposite gender. Even at that young age, boys have deep-rooted patriarchal mindset. MITR provides them with powerful inputs and facts that show them the opposite. We are influencing them to build trust and respect and become true male allies. We are expecting that this will also have a powerful playout in their early adulthood.

How do you expect this to translate to more women in the workforce?The country will only develop if we have at least 30 to 40 per cent of women in the workforce. And that is happening now. We're not blaming men. It's just that they haven't been trained this way. We hope to create a new generation of male allies, who view women with respect, a sense of camaraderie and a certain sense of being one team, and not as foreigners who are invading their place in the workforce. This will ensure more women participation in the workforce and through that, India's GDP will definitely improve. That's the kind of future for which we are laying the seeds through MITR.

E-commerce platform Fynd counters gender gap, pays women 10% more

‘Workforce gender gap to increase’

From a global perspective, it will take around 108 years to close the overall gender gap, and 202 years to bridge the workplace gender divide, an eminent Indian social entrepreneur said.

Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Social Entrepreneur, Founder and President of AVTAR Group, India presenting her views on the topic “Bridging the Gender Divide: Innovate to Include” at the 2nd International Conference on Future of Women 2019, held in Colombo recently said one of the biggest concerns in the female workforce in the south Asian region is the high dropout rate after maternity leave.

The event was organized by the International Institute of Knowledge Management (TIIKM). In such a context Dr. Rajesh commended Sri Lanka for maintaining a low dropout rate of 5%. She also suggested that Sri Lankan women should push for an increased maternity leave.

In order to bridge this gender divide, she proposed to sensitise the public, build and nurture intentionality, create a culture of allyship and bridge the breaks and so on. Meanwhile, Karthik Ekambaram, Vice President, Diversity and Inclusion Consulting at AVTAR Group, India addressing the gathering at the event under the title, “Invisible Role of Women in Economic Development”, shared his views on the downward glide of female participation in the workforce in both India and Sri Lanka, despite the promising economic growth. According to him, this trend was mainly attributed to cultural hindrances and surprisingly to the increased income levels.

“As a result of the growth in income level of the husbands, women do not feel the urge to take part in the workforce. Therefore, the possibility for the gender gap to increase in the workforce looms large.” he said.

It was also revealed that women work 3-4 times more than men when it comes to domestic functions. He also highlighted the need to provide career enablers for women in the corporate sector as the sector itself is designed to match the needs of men. At the same time he urged women to take part in the formal sector and leadership positions.

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Design Thinking in Diversity and Inclusion Training

Design thinking is not just about processes and tools, but it is about people. It is about value creation and value addition for people.

Among the many business buzzwords that has rocked the corporate world, the one that has captured our imagination collectively since early 1990s is Design Thinking. So is it just a trendy concept, an overused buzzword, or a complex theory? When we cut through the jargon, simplify it, and relate it in a business environment, Design thinking is fundamentally a systematic problem-solving approach, which helps us in uncovering powerful solutions. Essentially, it is about defining a problem that needs to be solved and analyzing it from multiple perspectives, getting in-depth understanding of the audience needs, generating several possible ideas, refining a few selected ideas to arrive at solutions and implementing the most viable solution(s).

Today design thinking has become an important protocol that helps businesses in driving strategy, operational excellence, innovation and culture change. Design thinking is not just about processes and tools, but it is about people. It is about value creation and value addition for people. The core idea behind design thinking is that if we want to create value through a product, service or process, we need to have an in-depth understanding of the needs and feelings of the people who will use it. This user-centered or human-centered philosophy drives design thinking. Since HR and related functions are created specifically to serve people, these principles can be applied to create employee-centric solutions that will reduce workplace complexities.

Design Thinking in Learning and Development

One area of Talent Development where design thinking is being implemented is Learning and Development. So far, systems thinking and instructional design technique ADDIE has been widely used to design Learning and Development programmes. Today, we have online courses, webinars, podcasts and mobile learning with DIY toolkits that give employees more control over the way they learn. But the million-dollar question is, are they learning at the right pace, retaining and applying it in the workplace? It is in this context that design thinking becomes a great catalyst in transforming the Learning space. Since design thinking places a great value on empathy for the user, applying these principles will help L&D professionals to create outcome-based learning modules that can enhance the learning experience of the employee. Experiential Learning programs should begin with a deep understanding of learners, context of their work and the challenges faced by them. Learning programmes that are designed in this manner tend to be much more engaging and will help in longer retention of knowledge and skill.

Design Thinking in Diversity and Inclusion Training

Application of design thinking is very relevant in Diversity and Inclusion Training. As most of us know, diversity and inclusion is all about creating an enabling environment where people can bring their authentic selves to work and feel valued, involved, connected and respected. At AVTAR Group, we have been using design thinking as part of our diversity and inclusion training programmes. As D&I practitioners, we consider multiple factors while developing a training course and we ensure that we truly keep our audience in mind. Different components of a training program, such as course content and any activity that may be a part of the course are developed and curated based on our awareness of the background and skills of learners.

While the most popular Design thinking process involves 5 steps (Empathize–Define–Ideate– Prototype–Test), we have been using 4 step design thinking process devised by The Design Council, UK. The design thinking process is divided into four phases here –Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver.

Apart from using design thinking to develop in-house training courses, we have also used design thinking as a learning methodology in our classroom training sessions on various topics related to diversity and inclusion. The essence of design thinking is to put learners into situations that make them think and help them in arriving at solutions to the challenges they face. It helps learners to analyze and resolve any work-related challenge in a new, insightful and stimulating manner.

Design thinking can be effectively used in any classroom session that involves developing an outcome or an action plan. We have engaged learners with interactive techniques and design thinking tools for recognizing unconscious biases, identifying common goals and bringing together productive ideas.

The Discover stage can be used to get a deeper understanding of the participants’ problems and requirements.

In the Define stage participants redefine the problem statement using insights gained from the discussion.

Consequently, in the Develop stage, they brainstorm about the challenges faced by them. They discuss concepts, solutions and debate the validity of their ideas.

Lastly, in the Deliver stage, learners select a solution that is the best-received, the most interesting and the most likely to be implemented. At this stage, participants design a prototype or three-dimensional representation of their solution and receive both positive and negative feedback, ideas for improvement and open questions. This entire experience leads to learners developing a shared vision by making productive use of their diverse backgrounds. Moreover, teachable moments get transformed to moments of true realization and learning. While used as a classroom learning methodology, design thinking process requires careful facilitation with clear rules, especially with regard to time management. A thorough follow-up by internal team (L&D or D&I) is very important to summarize and thoroughly implement the results.

Through its central idea of human-centered approach, design thinking has the ability to redesign our workplaces. When used in an imaginative way, design thinking can be applied to solve any challenge and drive the growth of an inclusive workplace culture that supports and empowers all employees.

Author

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Gender Diversity – How to include Men in the conversation?

How to support male allies in your journey to inclusion

How to support male allies in your journey to inclusion

Gender diversity has become a business issue. As companies re-look at their policies, here how they can engage male colleagues.

Companies intent on improving their Gender Diversity ratios are increasingly involving men as allies to their gender diversity and inclusion programs. But isn’t gender diversity all about increasing women’s workforce participation? What are men doing in these programs, you wonder?

Well, let’s begin with some hard facts – while 46% of university graduates in India today are women, ironically women are seen missing at the workplace – from 27% at entry levels to 15% at mid-management levels to 5% at senior management levels.

Gender diversity is a business issue. Many companies have and continue to invest in gender diversity and inclusion. Companies are striving towards a gender balanced workplace that will have a positive impact both on the society and business. But all efforts of bringing diversity into the workplace will fall flat if inclusion is absent.

With 85% at mid-management and 95% at senior management, men currently (and natively) hold a majority of formal and informal positions of power across organizations in various sectors. And they have a great deal of influence on the organizational set-up - in subtle everyday interactions and in inspiring change in larger systems and processes. To ensure the success of a gender-balanced agenda, it becomes imperative that organizations bring men into the conversations related to gender diversity and inclusion.

How do men play their role of allies?

There are ways in which men can be role models. But being a male ally is going beyond just advocating or helping specific women. It is about

Creating an organizational culture of inclusion through a systemic change where men actively participate in changing the prevailing mindsets and eliminating subtle biases – both conscious and unconscious.

It also involves engaging and encouraging men in the creation of policies, practices and culture that promotes gender balanced workplace and an inclusive environment for all irrespective of the gender.

Male allies also need to realize that while it can be exhausting to work towards bringing forth systemic change and the threat of being subjected to negative stereotypes, they need to approach this whole challenge with a growth mindset.

Negative reactions could be converted into opportunities to drive understanding and empathy about gender-related issues.

To be successful despite the challenges, they need to have the desire and commitment to make gender inclusion a reality in their respective organizations.

Most importantly, they have to listen to the issues of women employees and understand their professional challenges at grass-root levels. They need to understand how it feels for a lot of women to feel like a minority in a majority environment.

Case Studies: A look what companies are doing

A number of organizations are committed to the cause; their vision and execution are driving change in the gender landscape in corporate India!

In fact, 88% of 2017 Working Mother and AVTAR Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) intentionally create a male ally culture in their organizations. As many as 1,655 senior male leaders (of which 951 are from the Top 10 Companies) mentor over 1.2 lakh women professionals at their respective organizations – the ripple effects leading to more women rising to leadership, moving us closer to our vision of the gender-balanced talent pipeline!

Retention of women also has proven to get better when the male ally culture is the norm – for the record, BCWI Companies that invested in consciously creating a male ally culture recorded 7% less of women’s attrition than others that didn’t.

Companies across industries and sectors such as Accenture, Deloitte in India, Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, PepsiCo, Pega India, Schneider Electric have been running initiatives that have brought about significant change in the Inclusion culture of these organizations.

At Accenture, men play an active role as advocates of gender diversity and leaders consistently engage in fostering a culture of inclusion in their businesses by sponsoring and advocating for diversity – this is further driven by extensive training for male managers to become allies.

One of the key initiatives at Pega is sponsoring & promoting mentoring for the Women Talent in the organization.

At Deloitte India, a “Men as Champions” programme helps men play an active role at every stage of the organizational process to ensure that practices are aligned with the organizations' gender diversity policies.

Schneider Electric believes that a movement for change begins with a shift in mindsets and its possibility of effecting major change that leads them to enthusiastically embrace the HeforShe Campaign - the results of which have proved all the expectations true! (HeForShe is a UN campaign which encourages men to be advocates for gender equality).

The way forward

Change – especially when it involves societal, attitudinal transformations around gender roles have become significant. Towards male allyship, what is also important is the extent of the reach of these changes – across levels and verticals in organizations. And for these changes to be truly sustainable, for the culture of male allies to become the norm, consistent and methodical, inclusion is key!

India companies are now willing to pay more to fix its gender diversity problem

Maternity continuum impacts business continuity: Report

Difficult to fill in the talent void created post maternity leave: Survey

Health-related apprehensions, need for a temporary succession plan and ensuring business continuity are some of the worries that companies grapple with.

In times when businesses are opening up to the idea of more flexible and women-friendly policies to up their gender-diversity quotient, there are some practical struggles that they have to face. The biggest of all is the difficulty in filling talent gaps created in the event of 'maternity continuum' of women employees. A recent report reveals that most companies grapple to find alternative talent arrangements for the duration a woman employee is on maternity leave.

According to the recent report by AVTAR Group—Viewport 2018-'Maternity Management in Corporate India' — finding an alternate talent to fill in for the unanticipated temporary absence of a woman employee on maternity leave is the biggest challenge that 95 per cent of the managers reported.

Maternity continuum refers to the phases of maternity that a woman professional goes through in the event of pregnancy. 88 per cent of women felt that in the absence of guidance and support from mentors, managing uncertainty was a huge challenge, especially when there were health challenges involved.

The Viewport 2018 report is an outcome of a focus group discussion conducted among 275 working mothers and 150 corporate leaders in India, by diversity and inclusion consultants, AVTAR Group. As per the report, most organisations feel uncertain whether or not the employee will continue in the organisation after announcing her pregnancy. "Apprehensions about her health and the need for a temporary succession plan to ensure business continuity are amongst their worries," the report said.

About 61 per cent of managers felt that this was a huge challenge impacting business continuity, especially when the woman employee is in client-facing roles or is not an individual contributor. The report also mentioned that 59 per cent of women said the aftermath of unplanned leaves was huge and put additional stress on them.

A lot of employers felt uncertain about an employee returning after pregnancy or even accepting the same kind of role. Moreover, companies were concerned that the manager will have to take extra work load or delegate work of the leaving employee to others in the same team, which, if not well planned, might result in overloading them.

The report revealed that managers also face the dilemma of when to start preparing an employee to return from maternity. "The reintegration process also poses the challenge of preparing her team, which is now getting used to not having her around," it added. Therefore, to make reintegration smoother, managers usually end up reducing maternity returners' responsibilities or changing their roles to ease up their work-related pressure.

About 71 per cent of managers said that in the wake of insufficient support from organisations (especially around childcare), this challenge made the reintegration phases less smoother. In some cases, the report revealed that managers ended up overlooking the underperformance of new mothers without communicating the same to them, not wanting to add more to their work–life integration worries, even at the risk of hampering team effectiveness.

Further, it said that while managers were open to offering the option of flexible working hours to maternity returners, it became a challenge if it was not supported by organisational policy. In roles that require team effort, the manager also needs to sensitise other team members about collaborating with this flexible worker, the report added.

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Hey, Your Bias is Showing!

Unconventional ways to manage diversity and address prejudice at the workplace

Advertising agency JWT has a library. Only, here the books are not made of paper and ink. People are the books (and the readers). The titles are varied – An ‘Other’ Small Town Boy, One Girl: Many Faces, The Friendly Odd Man – and the reading is a conversation.

The Human Library concept originated in Denmark and JWT borrowed it to address the unconscious bias that creeps into workplaces, says Tarun Rai, CEO, JWT South Asia.

“People tend to hire people like themselves, with similar backgrounds, as they like to stay in comfort zones. We’re a creative business and our work goes country-wide. A mixed set of people can only improve our product,” he explains.

Recognising this problem, many firms conduct unconscious bias training to sensitise employees. Through a programme called Unconscious Bias and Conscious Inclusion, pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly & Company India exhorts managers to shed set notions, says Anant Garg, Director, Human Resources. For one, that experience is mandatory in hiring – young candidates are good at driving digital initiatives, now high on the company’s agenda. It is also experimenting with hiring employees from non-science backgrounds, moving employees between therapy divisions for leadership skills rather than subject knowledge, and not sticking to regional affiliations when transferring employees.

While urban India, to an extent, has understood the importance of diversity and inclusion, other areas are still struggling with issues such as gender and sexuality, says Srikanth Karra, CHRO of technology firm Mphasis. In a rapidly growing economy, “it becomes extremely imperative for us to be open to diversity, else we will be losing out on a large chunk of a talented resource pool”, he adds.

Discussion on diversity and inclusion in Indian workplaces skews towards gender even though policies exist with respect to disability, LGBTQ rights, regional differences, and such. The other major concern is age. Research shows that a diverse pool of talent is not merely a feel-good cause but has a positive impact on the business. Firms, therefore, are keen to enable women to grow professionally, and to retain millennials for longer than their young and restless nature will allow.

Gender rules diversity talk

Schneider Electric’s Rachna Mukherjee, Chief Human Resources Officer, says the gender divide is the first thing that needs tackling as it’s basic, and a business imperative. “Both men and women are our customers so both sexes have to contribute to the product portfolio,” she says.

Kiranmai Pendyala, Corporate VP and COO, HR, of semiconductor firm AMD, says the number of women begins to thin out at the middle and senior management levels as the challenges of straddling work and family increase. The constraints are tougher for manufacturing firms. “Demand is high but supply is thin,” she says.

In hi-tech product companies, less than 20 per cent women make up the workforce, says Pendyala. This is an improvement from a decade ago when that figure was less than 10 per cent.

A slew of measures designed to help women manage work and family, such as extended maternity leave and paternity leave, work-from-home facilities and schemes to bring them back to work after a hiatus are contributing to women entering and staying in the workplace.

Schneider Electric even has policies in place for employees who have children by surrogacy, with 12 weeks of paid leave and options for flexi-work following that. JWT has SheHour, a networking platform for women to meet and mentor each other. Infosys has set up a Global Diversity Council to equip women with insights and opportunities on the path to leadership and has had the Infosys Women Inclusivity Network since 2003 to address women employees’ professional needs.

Why does gender rule diversity concerns? Saundarya Rajesh, President, AVTAR group and diversity expert, says the need for talent dictates it. Issues such as LGBTQ and ethnicity are cultural imperatives. Also, when it comes to calculating returns on investment, gender diversity is easier to measure. From a parity perspective, gender is important, but the aspect of diversity that’s important to an organisation’s strategy will dominate, she says.

The diversity that counts

A case in point is Standard Chartered Global Business Services. Rajesh Balaji, its head of Human Resources, says they employed 100 people with disabilities, most hearing-impaired, for data entry, and their accuracy on the job is 30-40 per cent higher than their colleagues with no hearing trouble. So they look for differently-abled candidates every time they hire for these positions.

Besides gender, age is a major concern. Millennials drive culture and synergy at a workplace. “In product companies like ours, we look at it from the innovation perspective. Ideation is very different from an experienced hand,” says AMD’s Pendyala. AMD has also set up an innovation fund that even young employees can use to pursue projects they are passionate about.

Several companies have policies that look out for differently-abled and LGBTQ employees. Godrej Consumer has an equal opportunity policy and a gender-neutral anti-harassment policy, to protect the rights of LGBTQ team members. Infosys Gays Lesbians and You was set up in 2011 to enable a dialogue on office processes and policies that affect this community’s members.

Weaving it into work

Firms are ensuring managers realise the importance of diversity in various ways, apart from reaching out to employees. At Ericsson, all global leadership team members have diversity and inclusion objectives related to gender as part of their performance management plan.

At JWT, “there is a realisation and some employees have written to us saying that they now consciously try to stay away from making those stereotypes in their minds. This is just the beginning,” says Roopa Badrinath, Chief Talent Officer.

Fixing the Leaky Pipe – Women in Leadership

“Women in Corporate Leadership” is a paradox of sorts for many years now. While women make up to a healthy 46% of all undergraduates, the numbers dwindle to 15% at the mid-management level, 5% at the Senior management level and a dismal 1% of women at Board levels. With the number of women taking a career break for marriage, maternity or mobility not showing any signs of receding, the symbolic leaking pipe doesn’t seem like it could be mended. And this leak is resulting in fewer women at every further level in an organization.

Gender Diversity is not just a fancy term today. It has turned into a Business Imperative, and companies understand that. So, what are the innovative ways in which Companies can create a leadership pipeline that ensures that the leak at the middle of the pipe is re-routed and brought back into the mainstream? Let’s take a look at some of the solutions:

1. Creating a strong phase back Program for women coming back from their maternity- With the new mandate for 26-weeks of maternity, the need for a strong phase back program has become a hygiene need. A good relationship between an employee and her line manager is essential for the successful reintegration of the employee following maternity leave. How the organisation supports them through the process can help them remain engaged, and research has shown that the line manager relationship is the most significant factor in retaining maternity returners.

Organizations and most importantly managers need to help women employees make a smooth transition into working parenthood. Managers need to plan effectively so that it builds commitment and motivation on both sides. Together, the manager and the employee should be working towards a clearly defined and openly communicative working relationship in the days and months during pregnancy and motherhood. Retaining employees after maternity leave will enable organizations to maximise the returns on investment it has made on the employees by way of recruitment, training and development. Mindtree has an engagement model that provides for a buddy before women employees go on leave; it helps identify the right role for them to re-join. And they have designated HR managers who stay in touch with women going on maternity leave to ensure constant connection and smooth return. In fact, 52% of the 100 Best Companies for Women in India have a phase back program.

2. Second Career Programs – The impact of the leaking pipeline can be effectively negated by bringing women on break back into the workforce. AVTAR Group, the pioneers who introduced the concept of Second Career for Women in the country, have been working intensely in evangelising this concept which is now the buzzword for creating gender parity. The first recorded second career program in the Country was for SCOPE Intl in July 2006. Gender focused recruitment drives and second career hiring targeting women on career breaks play an instrumental role in bringing the Women back into the workforce. Companies like Cummins who have adopted a ‘Hire to Develop’ philosophy, also have customized interventions that facilitate the development of women employees for leadership positions and in key succession opportunities. Companies like Paypal, HUL, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Shell, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, People Combine too have strong Second Career Programs.

3. Mentoring and Coaching - Companies, like EY India, develop and strengthen the leadership capabilities of their women employees by fostering mentor-mentee relationships between women professionals and their leaders. There are others like Intel India which has a protégé-sponsorship program for select senior technical women employees that maps each identified employee to a senior leader, outside of their direct management chain. These sponsors act as their advocates and undertake targeted interventions that include influencing their job scope, creating networking opportunities, and ongoing coaching. The ultimate goal of this specialized leadership training is to strengthen and expand the leadership pipeline for women VPs in Intel India.

4. Strong Leadership Programs – It is heartening to note that most of the 100 Best at the 2016 Working Mother and AVTAR Best Companies for Women in India list have a leadership coaching programme. There are companies that have both formal and informal intervention programmes that are customised to suit the individual woman employee. Programs are designed for growing women talent for lateral and vertical growth, for both Technical and Non-Technical development. Some of these include Cummins India’s Growing Women Leaders (GWL) Program, EY India’s Women’s Access Program, IBM India’s Tanmatra, Intel India’s Accelerated Women’s Leadership Program (AWLP) and Mindtree’s Exuberance program.

5. Skill Development and Education – Further to internal programs, companies also have increasingly started to invest in external tie-ups with Universities and top B-schools in the Country for advanced courses for their women employees. These not only ensure updated knowledge but also development of specific skills that will enable these women to move up the ladder. There are also companies that provide options to work across different domains within the organization, across locations, which give women the exposure that is very crucial for a leader.

6. Family care support – One of the key enablers of Women’s Career advancement are robust family care support policies from organizations. Policies such as Fully paid Paternity leave, Health Insurance, Child care services etc. Amongst the 100 Best Companies for Women in India, 98% of the companies have Family Insurance policies, 95% have Personal Insurance policies, 86% have fully paid paternity leave, 67% have Unpaid Job guarantee and 26% have day care services.

Policies and practices are, still, just one part of the game in developing a reliable, strong and efficient Pipeline of Women leaders. A very significant, internal quality that needs to be developed in every Woman who steps into the workplace is Intentionality. A woman who is intentional of her career will be capable of creating her own career path that will see her through the life phases and bounce back to her career path with intensity strong enough to make her a leader.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house

By Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Founder-President, AVTAR Group

Motherhood in Corporate India

Perhaps one of the most impactful news of the year affecting India’s Gender Diversity measures at its Corporate places was the Maternity Benefits Amendment Bill. Though a huge thrust for India in terms of the rankings in this space (India is now third amongst nations that have the highest number of paid Maternity Leaves), there is a high-decibel debate on how this could in fact be detrimental to women’s workforce participation at large. Social Media platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, have seen innumerable slice-and-dice of the repercussions of having such a policy in not only in large corporates, but also in small and medium enterprises. While the six and half months of paid leave is a huge step towards enabling women in one of their critical life stages, there is a fear too. Questions have been raised at various levels – from whether it would be feasible for companies to keep these women-on-maternity-break (WOMB, coincidently!) in touch with the organisation, interested in their career during and after their break, relevant when they come back, to even whether they can afford to hire women anymore!

These questions are pertinent and do demand for us to contemplate on the amendment’s relevance and need in our current corporate scenario. Well, it is worth debating this. However, with the Bill becoming an act, we need to look at solutions now.

Research shows that the attrition rates are alarmingly high across industries despite having policies in place. Over 60% of Indian women are unsure about the decision of whether to stay or leave after childbirth. On the other hand, the benefits of having a gender diverse workplace is a given. A recent report by McKinsey Global Institute says that if the women’s workforce participation in India is increased to 41% by 2025, the GDP will be increased by about Rs. 46 lakh crore ($700 Billion). Over the years, many researches have been conducted around the world that have also proved that organizations with better gender diversity ratios make more profits than the ones that have poorer diversity representations. It would be a backward step for the organizations, of any kind – Large, Medium, Small, if they choose to ignore one half of the population for recruitment. The way forward is to definitely build an inclusive range of policies and practices that can support this new policy. Retaining employees after maternity leave will enable organizations to maximise the returns on investment it has made on the employees by way of recruitment, training and development.

So, what can companies do to ensure that they can carry on with their Diversity agenda and also benefit from it?

Maternity coaching

The demands on a woman professional who goes on a maternity break are high. Plagued by guilt and unable to prioritise, most of the women feel that quitting their job is the only sane alternative.

For an organisation that is a serious investor in gender inclusion and believes in the power of women’s workforce participation, the following would be highly beneficial:

1. A customised policy towards maternity leave that allows the manager of the pregnant woman to take enabling decisions from a suite of offerings. It would be ideal to have a wide spectrum within which the woman and her manager make a choice.

2. Another must-have across levels of the organisation is the Gender Intelligence training. This can facilitate better understanding and empathy, especially amongst the managers who have women in maternity phase reporting to them.

Goldman Sachs has a training program for its managers to show empathy and sensitivity to returning women. This has apparently had a great impact on the performance of the women. Aditya Birla Group, Morgan Stanley and Shell are big proponents of the concept of gender training, leading to greater empathy creation in the minds of managers.

3. The other subtle yet important factor is having an enabling attitude that recognises and celebrates the woman’s personal milestone while also gently nudging her to keep her skills updated and retain her professional edge.

Companies like Mindtree and EY India have initiative like apps and women networks that makes sure that women who are on their maternity breaks are in touch with the organization.

4. Strong support structures that ensure a smooth phase back when the woman returns from her maternity break.

The need for a supportive peer group has been found to be one of the strongest enablers for a woman professional. Organisations such as HUL, Cisco, Mahindra Group and Integra have understood the importance of these peer groups that provide confidence and psychological stamina to the young returning mother.

5. Preparedness training to the young mother by the way of on-the-ground counselling on how she will cope with the demands of motherhood and her career.

Companies like IBM, Fidelity, Deloitte and Mindtree have invested in this very critical support and have been seeing the difference in young mothers’ retention.

6. A coaching programme to support returnees prior to, during and after maternity leave.

Solutions to questions such as how a woman on maternity leave can stay connected, how to ensure that hard-won relationships at work do not suffer, how to utilise communication as a tool during an out-of-sight/out-of-mind scenario, being confident even as a fresh returnee, manage time and priorities well to hit the ground running and also the important art of setting boundaries — are an absolute must for the young returning mother.

It is time we create gender neutrality to career growth. Since women have the responsibility of bringing the next generation to this world, it is important to recognise it as a natural phase. It is imperative to do that if we want to take the society forward. It is necessary to break out of the idea that the onus is only on the women and the brunt be borne by them. When India Inc re-looks at how women’s career growth patterns are structured and becomes truly inclusive of what is only a natural phenomenon, then everyone wins!

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house

By Karthik Ekambaram, VP – Consulting Services, AVTAR Group

For Corporates, ‘Family Business’ Now Comes First

NEW DELHI, APRIL 17:

India’s contentious Maternity Bill, passed in March, has found a new champion in Reliance Industries, the country’s largest private sector company.

On Monday, the corporate heavyweight sent an internal circular to its employees announcing changes in its parental leave policy, including introducing benefits to ‘commissioning mothers’ who have a child through surrogate mothers.

“With effect from April 1, there will be introduction of leave of 12 weeks (84 calendar days) for commissioning mothers,” RIL’s HR department said. It also said it would extend maternity leave for 26 weeks (182 calendar days), from 180 days, for regular employees in line with government’s amended Maternity Act.

While many corporates have extended paid maternity leave to six months, RIL’s introduction of benefits to a commissioning mother is interesting as there has been furious debate over the definition of the term.

According to the draft Assisted Reproductive Techniques (Regulation) Bill, popularly known as the ‘surrogacy Bill’, a commissioning mother is one who uses her egg to have a surrogate child, leaving it a bit grey as to whether a mother who opts for an outside egg donor will qualify for this benefit or not. Which is why a lot of companies are still mulling over introducing this provision, though there are many, like SunLife Financial Asia Service Centre, that have done it already.

Two mindsets

As Rajeev Bhardwaj, Vice-President, HR of SunLife Financial Asia Service Centre, points out, there are two mindsets in the industry. One set of companies will do the minimum required by law. The other set will follow the letter and spirit of the law.

Though some argue that the Maternity Bill puts a lot of cost pressure on companies, the costs of providing benefits will be offset in the form of retention and stability within the organisation, argues Moorthy K Uppaluri, MD & CEO, Randstad India. However, he says, organisations will need to plan well in advance as to how they would want to chart out the career progression of employees who are rejoining the workforce.

Bharadwaj agrees. In the case of policies like surrogacy, he adds, HR managers would also consider the social milieu before adopting the provision. “How many employees in India really opt for surrogacy?” he asks. Also he says, if an employee here is bold enough to opt for such a decision, the employer must commend that boldness and step forward to support.

Saundarya Rajesh, Founder-President, AVTAR group, a specialist diversity consulting firm, lauds the Reliance step in adopting the new amendments but has a few misgivings about whether it would help the larger cause of getting more women in India back to office.

She points out that large corporates like HUL and Reliance already have good gender practices and the new Maternity Act is a bit like preaching to the choir as far as they are concerned. “When AVTAR did its Best Companies for Women in India survey, we found that 250 leading corporates already had good policies in place,” she says.

But the reality, she says, is that a majority of working women in India are employed by small and medium enterprises, which don’t have such a good compliance record. “The government should have given some tax benefits to SMEs that would incentivise them to introduce benefits,” she says.

The other point she makes is that while there is much energy in corporate India to address the needs of women who leave the workforce due to pregnancy and care of child, she does not see equal energy in addressing the supply issue. "What are they doing different to make sure more numbers of women come into the workorce at the entry level and are oriented to focus on a long career?" she queries.

What’s Wrong With Remote Work?

What’s wrong with remote work?

CHITRA NARAYANAN

SRAVANTHI CHALLPALLI

Four years ago Marissa Meyer decreed Yahoo employees could no longer work from home. This year, it is IBM CMO Michelle Peluso’s turn to tell her 2,600-people-strong marketing department that there will be no more telecommuting. Other adopters of this hardline approach include one of Silicon Valley’s greatest success story – Google.

IBM’s decision is shocking, however, as it was the pioneer of remote work. Big Blue allowed employees to work from home way back in the ’80s, when the technology to telecommute was not so great. In today’s hyper-connected world when everyone is just a voice, text or video call away and the millennial culture is to work from anywhere, it does seem counter-intuitive. Especially as studies have shown that administrative costs for a company do lessen (by as much as 15 per cent), and it has a direct bearing on productivity as well as happiness (no commuting stress, more time for hobbies).

But IBM’s explanation, in Peluso’s words, is: “There is something about a team being more powerful, more impactful, more creative, and frankly hopefully having more fun when they are shoulder to shoulder.”

This raises a few questions.

Is innovation and creativity really linked to close collaboration?

“Yes and no,” says Saundarya Rajesh, founder & President of Avatar Group, which runs a talent strategy consulting firm as well as a flexible working platform for women.

“Yes, because a product requires the full complement of thought capital from diverse individuals to pass through the various stages that take it to market,” she explains. “And no, because in many cases, innovation is largely an individual process – at this stage, collaboration might actually be counter-productive,” says Rajesh.

She believes that the initial processes do not really warrant close collaboration. “However, closer to the go-to-market stage an innovation has to be weathered to meet customer expectations which requires the team work that IBM speaks of,” she says.

What does a creative industry such as advertising think about this? Manish Bhatt, Founder-Director of Scarecrow Communications, says, “It’s true that in today’s world you can use Skype, chat, but when a lot of people are involved in the creative process, brainstorming together is required.”

Having said that, Bhatt describes how he has worked on projects remotely. “When I directed my film in New York, I got the music and complete voiceover from India. Everything was recorded there and we collaborated through chat. In future, if it is a simple film, I have decided I will not even travel to the location – simply get it shot,” he says. And yet, he insists, for agency work, remote working is not a good idea.

Even Dhanabalan RK, Vice President – Human Resources of Maveric Systems, which has a need-based and fairly lenient work from home (WFH) policy, says he sees merit in the IBM argument. “In businesses where employees work in teams, sharing a location builds camaraderie, innovation, and cooperation, which are essential to individual and team success,” he says.

So is remote work now going to be under threat?

It all depends on what the policy is for. The three biggest reasons for companies to introduce WFH are to do with work-life integration, attracting key talent, and driving cost efficiencies. Says Rajesh, “Over 66 per cent of remote workers in IT/ITES companies (according to a 2008 TCS study) are women, not because they become more productive, but because their work-life situation requires it and a company allows it, with the express condition that once the “critical stage” of the employee work-life passes, he or she can come back to work at the office.

As Rajesh points out, there are several gaping breaches in aspects such as accountability, performance measurement and leadership development that flexibility doesn’t fully answer. However, many companies have devised formulas that work.

Hybrid versions of the policy are coming up whereby the employee can work from home only a certain number of days – an approach followed by Maveric.

At Genesys, a customer experience technology firm, managers can fix a suitable policy for their teammates. Michael Katten, Senior Director, Technical Publications and Interim Site Lead – Chennai, Genesys, says that for managers whose employees have meetings with corporateheadquarters late at night, or have independent contributor work, WFH is a valued option.

Others such as Sapient believe constant monitoring is the answer. “We do a periodic dipstick of how the person is doing, the viability of the arrangement and the connection to the organisation,” says Khushnooma Mohan, Senior Manager, People Strategy, Sapient India.

As she sums up, “The value of work from home used judiciously with the right mechanisms, organisational guidelines, manager support, HR assistance and out-of-the box thinking is an unbeatable option.”

Sexual Harassment at Workplace: Why Women Prefer Anonymity

Sexual harassment at workplace: Why women prefer anonymity

As soon as a woman files a sexual harassment complaint, both her current and future job prospects are affected..

ByM Saraswathy

Three years ago, a 36-year old woman accused her superior at a newspaper of sexual misconduct. He would not only allegedly make sexually coloured remarks, but also insist that she accompany him to his hotel room during field work. She was sacked and hasn’t found a job since.

Women victims of sexual harassment often choose to remain anonymous because their job prospects take a hit once they formally lodge a complaint. While such cases are treated with utmost sensitivity in companies, biases do creep in at the time of changing jobs.

Saundarya Rajesh, Founder, President at AVTAR Group, which specialises in diversity at the workplace, said: “There is a lot of headache around women filing a case, be it going to the internal complaints committee [ICC], having to appear before it and being the subject of further biases in the current organisation.”

Often, the current employer does not wish to get involved especially if the complaint was not properly resolved or if there was excessive publicity about a particular case. Rajesh said that biases do enter the picture when a woman has filed a complaint in the previous company. She added, however, that the increase in sensitisation has resulted in some changes.

The top listed companies on the Indian stock exchanges are much more careful and have zero tolerance towards sexual harassment at the workplace. Smaller companies, during the background verification process, also look at whether the particular candidate had lodged any sexual harassment complaint in the previous company.

“Though they would not explicitly state that they will not hire such candidates, the unsaid rule in several companies in India is to exclude such candidates for many senior posts,” said the chief executive of a global background verification company.

According to Indian laws, sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour such as physical contact and advances, request for sexual favours, showing pornography or any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.

As per the guidelines of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, any organisation/branch of a company having at least 10 employees at a particular location is required to have an Internal Complaints Committee in place to look into grievances related to sexual harassment. Companies are even required to report them in their annual report and details related to closure of the case.

Human resource experts feel that victims should steer clear of companies which are not sensitive enough. Rituparna Chakraborty, Executive Vice President of TeamLease Services, explained that it is the perpetrator of crime and not the victim who should be subject to discrimination for any future employment.

“If a false case has been filed, then of course there will be anti-selection. However, if the incident was genuine, there is no reason why she should be subject to a bias,” she said.

HR consultants also recall cases where the ICC has not given out a clear cut decision for or against the accused. Such victims will have to wait till a full closure is received before they apply for another job.

In one case, a woman at an Indian conglomerate had complained about her boss making sexually coloured remarks. However, the case has not yet achieved closure and the complainant has moved abroad to seek better job prospects.

If the company finds the woman to be co-perpetrator in a case, be it flirting with the male perpetrator or giving inappropriate signals to his advances, she may also be charged. Hiring experts said that this makes any chance of employment bleak for the woman though she may not have intentionally been involved.

“Once a formal complaint is filed, it does not take time to spread to other companies," said a headhunter in Delhi. "It is indeed a challenge both for the concerned woman and hiring consultants to help them find a job. Companies are unwilling to get involved in controversies by hiring someone who has filed a case or has accused someone of improper behaviour.”

Women Managers Share Inspiring Stories of Success and Support

Women managers share inspiring stories of success and support

AAKANKSHA SRINIVASAN

ANANYA REVANNA

CHENNAI, MARCH 17:

The Madras Management Association last week organised its annual Women Managers’ Convention on the theme ‘The Millennial Woman’. Women from all walks of life came together to exchange notes and share stories — of success, failure, and supporting other women at the workplace and elsewhere.

The first session, ‘Leaning (Back) In’, was chaired by Saundarya Rajesh, founder-President of AVTAR Group, which works to help women get back into the workforce. The panellists were Hemalatha Annamalai, founder and CEO, Ampere Vehicles; and Toolika Rani, Squadron Leader (retired), Indian Air Force, whose passion for mountaineering pushed her to scale Mount Everest.

Rajesh spoke about how it was important for women to overcome the feeling of being a statistic and get back into the workforce.

Relating how she finds the time to pursue her passion as well as excel at work, Toolika Rani said she trains before and after work everyday. “While training, I set short goals and regard them as base camps. So when I attempted to scale a peak, not just Everest, in my mind, I have already scaled the peak several times. It’s all in the mind. If you want to do something, it will automatically become a priority for you.”

All the panellists agreed that women have to support other women and that behind every successful woman, there is another who dared to dream big and be different. Sapre said: “Workplace culture needs to change to make it more — for the lack of a better term — woman-friendly. And this can be achieved only when women support one another.”

Nurturing creativity

In the session titled ‘A Balancing Act’, artist, designer and educator Aishwarya Manivannan spoke about the importance of nurturing creativity in students. Creativity is not restricted to arts students; it is necessary for every field, she said.

About the education system in India, she said: “A teacher asks students to draw an apple and when they don’t draw it a certain way, they are told they are wrong. The education system doesn’t encourage children to think differently; they are expected to learn what textbooks say.”

To further prove her point, she showed the audience two drawings.

The exercise was to create something out of a given shape (a triangle, in this case) in 10 seconds. The first picture was by a five-year-old; as expected, he drew a house from the triangle. The second picture was also that of a house, but it was by a 76-year-old.

“On one hand, we can look at it as our ability to retain the child in us. On the other, it shows that we haven’t grown in over 70 years, which is scary.”

This is where the need for balance comes in: most people predominantly use one side of their brain. Manivannan said we need to find a balance between the two halves, so there is a creative outflow in every aspect of our lives.

2017 Best Companies for Women in India Initiative Launched

2017 Best Companies for Women in India initiative launched; Calls for participation from companies in India Inc

Chennai, 9th March, 2017: 100 Best Companies for Women in India 2017, a pioneering initiative to benchmark India Inc’s women inclusive practices, is inviting nominations for its second edition. The program recognizes and rewards best practices of companies across industry segments.

This initiative is spearheaded by India’s leading diversity & inclusion expert - AVTAR Group in association with US Based Working Mother Media. The first edition of Best Companies of Women in India (BCWI)in 2016 witnessed an overwhelming participation of over 300 companies from industry segments like IT, Manufacturing, BFSI, Healthcare, Education and many more.

The program aims to study policies of companies based on several parameters like Women’s Recruitment, Parental leave, Safety & Security, Flexible Work and more. The Top 10 Companies from 2016 are: Accenture, Cummins, Deloitte, EY, HUL, IBM, ICICI Bank, Intel, Mindtree, Morgan Stanley, People Combine (Due to a tie for one of the positions, there were 11 companies in the Top 10).

The 2017 BCWI study lays a platform to showcase the various initiatives undertaken by companies to improve the retention rate of women at workplace and also offer a conducive ecosystem. Participating companies will also be able to make peer-to-peer comparisons on best practices, and judge for themselves the impact of their choices. Companies with already-established gender parity goals will benefit from cross industry data and some may come out as equality champions, inspiring others and becoming the most desirable workplaces for talented & highly skilled women.

Commenting on the launch of BCWI 2017, Diversity & inclusion champion, Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President, AVTAR Group, said “Women’s workforce participation is a matter of national interest and concern, given the economic implications of advancing women in India. Discerning organizations seek data-backed inspiration to drive the agenda forward in moving towards a 50-50 gender balance. This is what the Best Companies initiative has provided – it is India’s largest gender analytics exercise.

It has become that benchmark by which organizations keen on gender inclusion wherever they are in their Diversity journey, measure their policies and programs. This year, apart from identifying the Best 100 and Top 10 companies which have pushed the bar on women’s advancement, the BCWI brings a new aspect – the Male Ally Legacy award, which celebrates an iconic male leader who has made the difference to thousands of women’s careers!”

Companies from across industries can participate in the project. The last date for filing the application is June 30th, 2017. Interested companies, with a minimum of 500 employees (including both men and women) in India, can visit the official website of BCWI at http://www.avtariwin.com/best-companies to register. Companies can also contact +91 73581 50111 or write to anju@avtarcc.com for further details about BCWI.

‘Women From Weaker Sections Hold on to Jobs’

‘Women from weaker sections hold on to jobs’

Mumbai: Women's attrition remains a big challenge for companies. Tapping into the vast potential of women from underprivileged sections of society could provide the requisite solution through simple methods of creating career intentional initiatives. Corporate exposure, role models and mentors have emerged as a key vector of career intentionality creators that upgrade women from underprivileged backgrounds, in their careers, according to Avtar Group's career intentionality report, shared exclusively with TOI.

These, along with career intentionality sustainers (family support, scholarship, motivation net, additional coaching and infrastructural support) and career intentionality propellers (such as intrinsic skills like determination, focus, hard-work and ambition), form a career development model that has helped women in their socio-economic development (see graph).

The study was conducted between September 2016 and January 2017 and covers 1,488 subjects, who had spent more than eight years working for the same organisation at an early career stage. Of these, 34% — or 496 women — came from underprivileged backgrounds and had studied in corporation/government schools. All of these 496 women, spread across India, had managed to follow a path that was divergent from that followed by the majority of women in socio-economically challenged backgrounds. The women, currently employed in white collar jobs, had broken out of poverty and were instrumental in creating a better life for themselves by building a career development model framework that allowed them to persist against all odds and rise to a better socio-economic status.

Saundarya Rajesh, founder-president, Avtar Group, said, "This study, which was constructed upon identifying a trend of low attrition associated with women employees from humble backgrounds, revealed that when a girl from an underprivileged family obtains a role model or a mentor who intervenes at critical junctures in her life, she becomes 'career-intentional' and, in eight out of 10 cases, is able to complete tertiary education that leads her to a higher-paying job, as compared to what she would have earned as a domestic servant. This presents a unique opportunity for corporate India to build a new cadre of gender-diverse talent, which has the potential to buck the trend of high women's attrition."

Does Going Digital Mean Even Fewer Women in the Workforce?

Does going digital mean even fewer women in the workforce?

SAUNDARYA RAJESH

International Women’s Day is here and for those of us who work for gender diversity, it is among the busiest of seasons. Juggling time on my calendar to attend the ‘office-warming’ of a friend’s 500-seater IT company, I had a very gratifying vision as I looked at the lines of empty workstations and cubicles. An image of neat rows of women occupying those seats! Women closing deals, stylish women writing code, empowered women speaking confidently on hi-tech communication equipment, et al. Stuff that truly dreams are made of.

Unable to hold my excitement, I asked the CEO, a young tech wizard, “So, how many women do you think you will hire? About 40 per cent? 50 per cent?” My mood was upbeat.

“Well, honestly, if I were to go by what I saw during my last campus hiring exercise not more than about a dozen,” he replied. “A dozen! Out of 500 hires?!” I was incredulous. “Yes,” he replied calmly. “I don’t think women are cut out to be digital citizens.” And that shocking statement led me to find out for myself what exactly is in store for women in the digital era.

Digital fluency

Recent studies indicate that there is a gender gap in ‘digital fluency’. What does this term mean? Digital fluency is the extent to which people embrace digital technologies to become more knowledgeable, connected and effective. It impacts how men and women use digital technologies for education, information and career advancement.

Women, the studies note, are digitally less fluent than men. A recent research by Accenture reveals that Indian women score the lowest in digital fluency. Of the 31 countries covered in the research, India has a gaping gender divide in digital attainment. However, the same gap is an opportunity too, since 46 per cent of all enrolled undergraduate students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in India as of 2014 are women. If digital fluency can be instilled in young female engineers and graduates, then the Indian IT industry — which today has a 30 per cent representation of women — can increase in numbers to bridge the workforce participation rates.

Let us consider this: while digital fluency has the felicity to impact women’s workforce participation, are women ready to become digital citizens? Again, there is no paucity of research on this. Male brains may be optimised for motor skills but studies say female brains are optimised for combining analytical and intuitive thinking, with greater connections between the left and the right parts of the brain. While gender stereotypes might refute this by asserting that women are not comfortable in STEM sciences, research actually states the opposite — that it is more nurture than nature which causes women not to become as technologically confident as men. If analytical thinking is what women’s brains are optimised for, there is a lot women can do in the day and age of Big Data and analytics. The little secret is that, they don’t know it!

Women and neurosexism

In an interview to Forbes, Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, once said there is an over-emphasis on the influence of gender on STEM. This is validated by words of Lise Eliot of the Chicago Medical School, who believes that while there are basic behavioural differences between the sexes, this difference increases with age due to our gendered culture. She states, “Children don’t inherit intellectual differences. They learn them.” As a skill-building initiative working in the space of education for underprivileged children, we have seen heavy stereotypes parents often bear, that boys have poor chances of acquiring good verbal skills or that girls have little opportunity of developing mathematical prowess. Such biases place serious and unjustified obstacles in the path of children’s education. If we were to push this “neurosexism” out of the way, girls stand as much a chance of excelling in STEM as do boys. Exposure to tech platforms in formative years helps ensure that a ‘tech inclination’ is built early on, in girls. Girls are often able to optimally look at problem solving, as they are empathetic in their approach. But what actually impacts their participation in STEM? It appears to be the usual suspects of media which inculcates stereotypes, our education system which creates biases and subsequently, the work environment which engenders the bias to a greater extent. So, what should women do in order to become truly skilled digital citizens?

Stay digitally adaptable

Technology is evolving, revolutionising the world at an unprecedented pace. Newer versions of apps appear every other day, software platforms that were once the rage become archaic in a few years. Against this backdrop, to become truly skilled digital citizens, women should adapt, stay digitally relevant. Mentors, peers or online courses are all potential channels for staying aware of digital evolutions.

The AI wave isn’t science fiction any longer. There are machines which have proved to be smart doctors, have won games of chess and jeopardy! It is definitely going to be another era of survival of the fittest and how can women ensure they are the fittest? By nurturing their creativity, and adding these elements to AI platforms that can ensure creative intelligent solutions.

It is proven that having more women on board brings more innovation to business houses. If that is the case, in a world set to be overtaken by automation, it is important that women leverage their cognitive diversity. To give an example, if a woman is in a client-facing role, she can ensure empathetic use of technology (factoring clients’ approach to the tech platform) to build better client relationships.

But most important of all, to all those young women who are already in STEM, here’s what I would say: STEM careers are not easy. But then, no career worth having is. Your challenges are deeper since this is a VUCA world sitting on a burning platform. So, you won’t always know or see the right path in solving a problem or taking a decision in your career path. You might have to step back, realign, make adjustments and maybe even choose a career a little away from the one you got into. But it’s okay. What is important is for you to be intentional. If you’re intentional, you will be successful.

(The author is Founder-President, AVTAR Group)

Cummins Gives 30-day Paternity Leave

Cummins gives 30-day paternity leave

Mumbai: When it comes to parental leave, it appears companies in India are competing to offer the best leave possible. Over the last few years, companies have upped the game on paternity leave — with some offering a week, to a few progressive companies moving to a fortnight. Cummins India has now set a new benchmark of sorts. It has become the first among manufacturing companies to come up with a path-breaking 30 days of paternity leave for its employees, which can be availed of during the first six months of becoming a father.

Vikas Thapa, VP (HR), Cummins Group in India, told TOI, "We want to create a culture of inclusion and promote gender parity. In line with this, we have made our parental leave gender-neutral, focusing on both primary and secondary care givers. The primary care giver can now avail six-month maternity leave, while the secondary care giver can take the newly introduced 30-day paternity leave. We believe much like mothers, fathers too need to bond with the newborns."

A number of companies are breaking gender stereotypes through a fresh outlook on parental leave. Starting this calendar year, Deutsche Bank de-linked parental leave from gender and offered the same quantum of childcare leave — maternity leave of six months in India — to men as well, if they happen to be primary caregivers.

It is usually assumed that the woman/mother is the primary caregiver since she gives birth to the child. But there is a growing trend of men partaking in childcare responsibilities. A study by Avtar Group and Working Mother Media reveals that 86% of companies introduced paternity policies at workplace as an aid for young working mothers. Most progressive companies offer 7-15 days paternity leave. Cummins could be setting a new precedent and its offer would most likely be matched at least by new-age companies, if not the brick-and-mortar kinds. PayPal recently doubled its paternity leave from 5 to 10 days. Asian Paints, too, offers paternity leave for 10 days. Microsoft India and GSK Consumer Healthcare are among those that offer a two-week paternity leave.

According to a Mercer global parental leave report, 38% of companies globally provide paid paternity leave above the statutory minimum and several countries mandate a parental leave programme for employees. In Asia-Pacific, 41% of the companies provide paid paternity leave above the statutory minimum to their employees with India being among the top-10 countries that have the highest percentage of companies providing paternity and adoption leaves above the statutory requirement in the world.

Awakening the Girl Child

Awakening the girl child

Dr Saundarya Rajesh is an award-winning social entrepreneur from Chennai.

One of the earliest voices to speak on gender diversity and inclusion of women in work spaces from India,

Dr Saundarya Rajesh is an award-winning social entrepreneur from Chennai. Best known for pioneering work in creating second careers for women, she was recently named to the UN’s list of ‘25 Women Transforming India’ in 2016.

Founder-President of the Avtar Group, Saundarya was herself a second-career woman — who earlier pursued a corporate career in banking, only to discover that the workplace had to undergo several transformations. Having started India’s first career service for women in 2005, she says, “I have 40,000 women like me on the Avtar I-WIN network (Avtar India women professionals interface network),in which 8,000 of whom have re-entered the workforce. Working with women and helping them is my ultimate passion.”

Saundarya passionately believes that women are the backbone of any economy and if a country focusses on increasing its women’s labour force participation, then it would reach its true potential. Recently, her group’s CSR arm Avtar Human Capital Trust kickstarted the ‘Project Puthri’ campaign on National Girl Child Day (January 24). The objective of this project is to create career intentionality among corporation school girls and enable them to rise out of poverty, early marriages, sexual abuse, and domestic violence and propel them to become a new cadre of talent for corporate India.

“Project Puthri is India’s first ever career intentionality training initiative addressed at 10,000 girl children across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The girl children are from corporation, government and government-aided private schools. Now, almost 100 schools are a part of the project. We launched the initiative one month back and are planning to kick in the programmes by June 2017,” Saundarya shares.

Elaborating on the project, the entrepreneur says, “We want the girl students from class eight to class 12, to focus on their careers. Career intentionality is not like a course or a vocation; instead we will teach them the ability to demonstrate resilience, the ability to show passion, to work in a team, to focus on their careers and get ahead. We also provide them three things — mentor, role model and corporate exposure through career coaches. Through this five-year programme, we become a part of their life and influence them.”

Saundarya believes that this training will prevent drop-outs, and build meaningful relationships. “It’s a sad state that only one out of every 100 girls in the state finishes class 12. We want to change the statistics. We make sure that there is a quantum jump in the number of children who finish plus two. We expect Project Puthri to have a social awakening,” adds the entrepreneur.

Saundarya wants to ensure that these girl children get into tertiary education and make certain they pursue white-collar jobs upon graduation.

A leading keynote speaker at national and international forums in the areas of entrepreneurship and human capital management, her vision is to reach out to the 1.8 million Indian women, who wish to make a career come back.

Startups Tap into the Small Town Female Workforce

Startups tap into the small town female workforce

Sovon Manna| Feb 12, 2017, 02.00 AM IST

KOLKATA: Anumita Mukherjee, a Durgapur-based media professional, was looking for freelance opportunities after a year-long break. But it wasn't easy to find a job with a good salary and flexible hours through the usual channels. Finally, a friend pointed her to a website that helps women like her find jobs.

From Chandigarh and Kochi to Ahmedabad and Durgapur, women in smaller towns are going online to find work, especially if they've taken a break. Startups such as Sheroes, HerSecondInnings, JobsForHer, ElasticJobs and Avtar I-Win are helping women in small towns find jobs with flexible hours and salaries commensurate with their skills and qualifications.

A lot of the jobs on offer, such as technical writing, coding and testing, and design, allow remote working, so a woman in Siliguri can work for a company in Mumbai quite easily. Companies too are open to such arrangements as it solves their resource crunch problem and reduces establishment cost.

"Women are often forced to give up their careers due to various obligations and commitments," says Mukherjee. "Women like me, who live in non-metros, have very few options. But we want to earn a living and feel a sense of fulfilment just as much as anyone else," she says.

That's the kind of sentiment that pushed Neha Bagaria to start her company JobsForHer in Bengaluru in 2015. The Wharton graduate had taken a break to raise her two children, and realized that a lot of mothers like her wanted to get back to work but didn't know how. "We connect women on a career break with job opportunities ranging from full-time, part-time, work-from-home to freelance," says Bagaria. The startup charges companies for promoting jobs on its website.

Women in tier 2 and 3 cities are also looking online for better opportunities and pay. Priti Sharma, a designer based in Ranikhet in Uttarakhand, found that most companies offered her less pay than their counterparts in metros. She signed up with a startup and got a job that paid according to her qualifications.

According to industry estimates, there are over 300 million women looking to enter workforce across the country. Technology is the equalizer and has played a vital role in enabling women in small towns to gain an equal footing in the Indian workforce. "Now any educated and qualified woman, who was previously constrained by geography, has the ability to become gainfully employed while working from home," says Bagaria.

Working from home is catching on in tier 2 and 3 cities, and the demand for jobs is higher in northern, western and southern India. Women — especially between 24 and 40 years — are able to earn Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per annum working from home. For highly skilled software jobs, the income is higher. "They can earn Rs10,000 to Rs1,00,000 per assignment or per month, depending on their capability," says Manjula Dharmalingam, director, HerSecondInnings, a job portal for women, based in Bengaluru.

Sheroes founder and CEO Sairee Chahal says, "At our helpline, most queries revolve around work from home options. In small towns, where people have fewer career options, working from home provides them with possibilities that help them stay connected with the corporate world or start something new." Sheroes gets applications from cities ranging from Port Blair in the Andamans to Ludhiana in Punjab.

Employers pay women either on a job basis (payment is made on completion of a job) or give them a retainer (one gets a small, fixed amount every month and more if there is a job). Basic services are free for both job providers and job seekers, and the portals screen jobs before posting them.

"Only jobs those that pass our screening are allowed on Elasticjobs. We filter out all junk and present our users good, quality jobs," says Abhishek Bagaria, CEO, ElasticJobs, based in Kolkata. "We also hold counselling sessions to understand skills, interest areas and constraints of the candidates. Based on this, we suggest job options or training, if needed," he says.

On the face of it, flexi-work may not seem to be long-term option, but many women have found it to be a stable and sustainable source of income. "Flexi-work opens the door for women to explore multiple avenues to earn money as well as to realise their passion and explore their career journey," Dharmalingam says.

Can Maternity Coaching Check Attrition Rate

Can ‘maternity coaching’ check attrition rate?

Saundarya Rajesh

Counselling mothers who return to work is not new, but in recent times it has attained the status of a structured programme

In a span of five years, Divya quit her job twice. The first time she did so, it was six months after she had returned to work from her first maternity break. After a year’s break, she got a job as part of a second career programme offered by a BPO. Two years into her new job, she resigned again.

The reason: she had her second baby.

Eight months on, a role has emerged that would suit Divya to a ‘T’, but she is not just hesitant, but also diffident.

She feels she no longer belongs in the workplace. And this is a college topper, interview-cracker and exceptional performer at work that we are talking about.

Whose loss is this?

When women like Divya decide that the workplace is no longer sustainable for them, who bears the brunt of this damage?

Is it the system which invested in Divya’s education as a girl child? Is it the corporate that trained her, invested in her and expected her to rise to position of leadership?

Or is it Divya herself who, after getting off to two good starts, not just one, is fearing the workplace again?

The leaky pipeline cannot be ignored.

Having a child, leave alone two, one encounters the ‘leaky pipeline’, which is the bane of organisations.

The most exotic policies around women’s workforce participation seem to crumble like dust in the face of the harsh reality of attrition caused by maternity. Even for the most logical woman, going through maternity is a gigantic emotional roller-coaster which throws her best-laid plans off-balance. Over 48% of working women under the age of 30 take a break in career citing maternity as the top reason. And, companies see a surging spike in attrition of women who return from maternity. The Maternity Benefit Amendment Bill 2016 (still waiting to become an Act pending clearance from Lok Sabha) stipulates a six months benefit with the option of flexible working. However, the leave provision alone does not seem to play a major role in curbing attrition.

Sarah, 32, working with a leading IT services firm, has been considering quitting her job for the past three months, ever since she returned from her first maternity break. Her organisation, a generous one, gave her six months maternity leave even before the Bill has been passed.

Sarah identified a crèche (referred by her employer) to which her child goes and she also gets the option of working flexibly for two days in a week. However, her key challenges do not lie in these hard options — on the contrary, it is the softer aspects of her transition that seem to hasten her decision of dropping off the workplace.

Maternity coaching

The demands on a woman professional who goes on a maternity break are high. Sarah describes her state of mind as “being a jump from professional to mother and then back to a professional again.

When you are neither 100% mom nor 100% professional and seek to be a combination of the two, you seem to fail miserably at both.”Plagued by guilt and unable to prioritise, Sarah feels that quitting her job is the only sane alternative. The draining emotional upheaval that she goes through while stepping inside the doors of her workplace are not very helpful to her performance.

The different dynamics that influence a women’s thinking post-maternity have been discussed aptly by Katherine Ellison in her book The Mommy Brain. While Ellison argues that a woman actually ends up building far more robust business skills through changed neurological patterns post-maternity, the crucial clincher is that the woman requires self-awareness and support to actually emerge stronger.

Maternity coaching or counselling emerged as a strong discipline in corporate counselling since the early 2000s. As part of psychotherapy, maternity coaching did not obtain the same level of awareness or utilisation as did its more famous counterparts. In a country like India where the joint family system had an influence on the mother, maternity counselling was present by default. It was almost like a rite of passage handed down from generation to generation. Yet, in these frenetic times, with nuclear families being the norm, and with the young mother having to deal with the pressures and stresses of double-horse riding at home and work, greater attention to maternity counselling or coaching has been extremely beneficial.

Twenty-six out of “the Working Mother & AVTAR 100 Best Companies for Women in India” offer maternity coaching.

There is a significant difference of 8 % in women’s attrition in companies with maternity coaching and without. As much as the quantifiable objectives, companies which use maternity coaching also express the following positives:

a) Improved engagement and productivity among returning women.

b) Smoother re-integration of women post maternity leave.

c) Better management of maternity breaks of employees by managers/teams.

For an organisation that is a serious investor in gender inclusion and believes in the power of women’s workforce participation, the following would be highly beneficial:

1. A customised policy towards maternity leave that allows the manager of the pregnant woman to take enabling decisions from a suite of offerings. A leading FMCG organisation recognises that not all women want to go on a really long maternity leave. As such, there is a wide spectrum within which the woman and her manager make a choice. Not all maternity support systems need to be built on long periods of leave

2. Gender Intelligence training for managers that can facilitate better understanding and empathy. Diversity training (aka sensitisation training) is a must-have across all levels of the organisation. The adage that too much is never enough can be aptly applied to gender intelligence training especially in the context of returning mothers.

In 2011, Goldman Sachs began the practice of training managers to demonstrate empathy and sensitivity to returning women and it had a great impact on the performance of the women. Aditya Birla Group, Morgan Stanley and Shell are big proponents of the concept of gender training, leading to greater empathy creation in the minds of managers.

3. An enabling attitude that recognises and celebrates the woman’s personal milestone while also gently nudging her to keep her skills updated and retain her professional edge.

In the early 2000s, HCL recognised that women on maternity required to be kept updated on the happenings at office and the opportunities that were emerging. A community was built that helped the women-on-maternity-leave to stay connected

4. Support structures that result in confidence building when the mother makes her return after maternity leave.

One of the strongest enablers for a woman professional, mother or not, is a supportive peer group. Organisations such as HUL, Cisco, Mahindra Group and Integra have consistently invested in building these peer groups that provide confidence and psychological stamina to the young returning mother

5. On-the-ground counselling by way of imparting preparedness training to the young mother on how she will cope with the demands of motherhood and her career.

Companies like IBM, Fidelity, Deloitte and Mindtree have acknowledged the importance of this very critical support and provided the same.

6. A coaching programme to support returnees prior to, during and after maternity leave.

Solutions to questions such as how a woman on maternity leave can stay connected, how to ensure that hard-won relationships at work do not suffer, how to utilise communication as a tool during an out-of-sight/out-of-mind scenario, being confident even as a fresh returnee, manage time and priorities well to hit the ground running and also the important art of setting boundaries — are an absolute must for the young returning mother.

(Saundarya Rajesh is founder-president, AVTAR Group)

India Inc Curtails Post Maternity Attrition

India Inc curtails post-maternity attrition

MUMBAI: Several organisations have over the last few years introduced new policies to curtail attrition among women employees post maternity . Between 2003 and 2010, according to Avtar, a diversity and inclusion consulting firm, over 48% of employed women under 30 years of age dropped out of the workforce due to maternity and childcare. It's a challenge organisations are facing headon. From flexi-work to phaseback programmes, no stone has been left unturned. The hard work is finally paying off.Organisations are witnessing agradual reduction in attrition levels among women employees post maternity.

Over the last three years, Maersk Group India has seen a steady decline in attrition among women employees post maternity from 30-33% in 20132014 and 24-26% in 2015 to 7% so far in 2016. IBM India, on the other hand, has reduced attrition among women employees by 10% in the last two years, while at Cummins, a return-to work programme called `Reboot' launched in May 2016 has already seen a positive outcome.

Maersk had in April this year introduced improved maternity benefits of a minimum 18 weeks of maternity leave on full pay and a phased return-to-work programme with reduced hours by 20% on full pay for up to six months to all employees who return from maternity leave. Year on year, 3-5% of its women workforce proceed on maternity leave. Maersk realised when women return to their careers, they may sense reduced confidence levels. Many lose leadership roles to their peers who remained in the workforce.

It was critical for Maersk, which has a women-to-men workforce ratio of 30:70, to introduce a `return-to-work' initiative and transition employees on a career break to full-time careers. Here, women leaders are provided with real-time challenging business project opportunities, deployed through a holistic orientation and developmental programme focusing on specific skills and capabilities to settle in their roles at the earliest and assigned a mentor.

Under Cummins' `Reboot', candidates go through an induction and general global onboarding that brings them up to speed with their peers. "In a short span of six months (from launch of Reboot), it has enabled 22 candidates to resume their careers," said Vikas Thapa, VP (HR), Cummins Group in India.

At IBM, a flexible work environment is created to help employees get work done in or der to achieve business objectives and meet personal needs.Dilpreet Singh, VP (HR) & HR head, IBM India & South Asia, said, "Getting women back to work post child birth is an important metric for us. Around 70% of women who go out on maternity leave come back and stay with IBM."

Saundarya Rajesh, founder (president), Avtar Career Creators & Flexi Careers India, said, "In 2009, Standard Chartered Bank was among the first companies to offer six months maternity leave. Soon, a bunch of companies started offering this. But even after offering the best-in-class six months, attrition rate of women who went on maternity leave was high, at 35-40%. Most returning mothers were plagued with guilt and in spite of having very understanding managers, they decided to drop off."

In a study around career enablers for women, Avtar found that not only did women require a 'phase-back' programme, they needed assistance in the form of supportive peer groups as also counselling.